ASUS readies HDMI equipped Xonar HDAV 1.3

ASUS' highly anticipated Xonar HDAV 1.3 soundcard has quietly appeared on their website, though the company is yet to issue out a supporting press release for it.

The Xonar HDAV 1.3's biggest standout feature is that it is the first soundcard to bring full HDMI support. Much attention has been focused on the quality of components and ensuring a clean lossless design across the board with its Hyper Grounding circuitry and Burr-Brown DA converters.

Given the card's biggest marketing point is its residing HDMI support, it goes without saying that it can handle full 96 or 192KHz Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master audio streams with no downsampling. Furthermore, ASUS has also added their Splendid HD Video Processor to the card which is said to increase color performance and enhance edges for a more brilliant, crisper image. Splendid HD can also up-sample lower resolution content, recovering clarity for high-definition displays. There's also a few other examples of what the processor can do at the product page.

A Deluxe version of the Xonar HDAV 1.3 is to become available as well, though the product page for this offering is currently not online yet. It includes a HDAV H6 extension board with full 7.1 channel analog output and swappable op-amps. On that note, both versions of the card itself also have swappable op-amps whereby the listener has the ability to switch for ones that they feel further enhances the card's analog output.

Both packages of the card will come with ArcSoft's TotalMedia Theatre for Blu-ray playback as well as a bundle comprising a DVI to HDMI cable, a pair of Toslink (optical) S/PDIF adaptors for the RCA jacks and a 3.5mm-to-RCA adapter cable. Buying the Deluxe version will also give you some 3.5mm to RCA cables for the 7.1 analog output.

We're not yet sure on exact pricing or shipping dates yet. We'll bring you more as it comes in.